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Hi All, We have recently joined this website, and spent many hours trolling through the numerous contributions for things which might help in our great adventure to Australia. Because we have experienced some difficulty finding things which relate to our specific visa, and as some of these posts go back many years, and are now outdated, we thought perhaps it is time to start a new thread, specifically and uniquely for those of us applying for the 143 - Contributory Parent Visa (Migrant). To start this thread, I thought I might offer some insights and tips we have gathered along our journey to date, which you may find useful. Hopefully others in the same situation will also contribute. And if you have questions related to this particular visa, please ask, and we (or others) will try to assist you. #1. PLAYING THE WAITING GAME We are currently in limbo (or as someone has aptly coined it "the waiting room") while we await the appointment of our Case Officer ("CO"). Our application was registered on 17 May 2013, although confirmation of this was only received by us on 15 July 2013. Initially, we were advised that the delay in processing our application would be "less than 12 months", but this has gradually moved out over the intervening months to the current official delay of "18 months". This waiting game has proven to be the most frustrating part, particularly as there is no way of knowing quite where you stand. For those of us in this visa class, there is no official queue, as has been created for the Non-Contributory visa classes. But we can still get an idea of what is going on from other sources. Firstly, I suggest you send an email at month-end to parents@immi,gov,au. You don't need to write anything, as this will generate an automated response which provides you with the latest update and information on every class of parent visa. About halfway down the email, you will see which month the authorities are currently processing for the 143 visa class. Note that this date does fluctuate - for example, in the beginning of June 2014, the delay it was reportedly down to "16 months"; but by the end of that same month it had returned to 18 months again. The next place you can visit is a website at www.gainwave.co.uk, which publishes a "CPV Progress Tracker". Here other visa applicants are posting their timelines, and you can get a good idea of how long it is taking to complete the whole process. Finally, there are other websites similar to this one, where people are posting their time lines - such as www.pomsinoz.com and www.perthpoms.com Now that the Australian authorities have permanently closed applications for all other classes of parent visas (since June 2014 only Contributory Visa subclass 143 and subclass 173 are being accepted) we are hopeful that more resources in the Parent Visa Centre will be allocated to the processing of our visas, and that the lead-time will shorten I hope this has been helpful, and I shall continue to add to this thread in time